12/14/17

Picked up a couple who were going to Winter Wonderland at COTA.  They offered to pay for parking and for entrance to the event so that I would be there to bring them back.  Sounded good to me.  I was not planning on going to Winter Wonderland but got to go anyway.

12/12/17

One of the incredibly interesting things about being a Ride-share Driver is the many conversations that you cannot help but overhear.  Being the deep-thinking person that I am, I get a great deal of satisfaction in hearing things that put me into that deep-thinking mode.

Many of the conversations that I hear initially prompt me to think about how ridiculous and insignificant the conversation sounds.  Such was the case tonight but then the thoughts evolved.  They evolved into thinking about how my conversations with my peers probably sound when I am talking to my peers about events and situations in my industry.  What ever it is that these guys were talking about, it was very important to them and in fact sounded like it was probably their livelihood.  Steven Covey said it and it is a very applicable.  "Seek first to understand, then to be understood".

11/21/17

Received a request as I was about half-way home.  My thought was that this would ve perfect if they were going North.  Of course it was not perfect.  I pulled up to address and people started coming out of the house with luggage. I thought to myself, Holy shit!  We are going to the airport.  Sure enough, the airport was the destination and it was in the opposite direction.  It was a fun trip and the most God-awful path was taken as we tried to dodge all of the bad traffic spots.  I knew my wife and daughter were waiting for me, so upon dropping the riders off I immediately called them to let them know what happened.  I turned off the app and scorched a trail to the north.

12/01/17

Let the Christmas parties begin.  I didn't make it one block before the first request was made.  They were coming in even before I had completed the ride I was on.  Very heavy traffic in front of the nice hotels (where the parties were taking place).

Fun conversation amongst one of the 2 large groups, about college dormitories.  We all know that guys are not allowed in the girls dormitory, or at least that is how the coversations went.  However, in a guys dormitory "nobody gives a shit" (about girls being in the guy's dormitory).  The story continued.  The mascot at this guys dormitory was The Mighty Cocks.  "Bring it on and we'll keep coming". 

Their story not mine. 

There is restaurant on Manor Road called Dai Du.  I have taken lots of people there.  From the outside it is incredibly unassuming and even almost presents an image of a butcher shop.  They certainly have something there that many people are interested in.

Stupid ass app routed me right past the pickup location, go around the block and arrive back at the location that I had just driven past.

11/14/17

Busy Tuesday. Picked up a gentleman downtown who had not used Ridesharing before. Lots of great conversation with this gentleman.  He had an accent that I couldn't figure out at  first but when he told me that he grew up in southern Africa and is  currently living in Ireland, it made perfect sense. It was so interesting and funny to here him say "fuck"  or "fuckin".  When he said it, it sounded like "fook" or "fookin ".  It's still sounded like profanity regardless of the accent.

11/13/17

$108 in about 3 hours.

I have never seen a mother talk about cars to her 2 sons like this lady did.  They were speaking their primary language until they would say the manufacturer and model of the car which they would say in English.   They knew their stuff.

11/04/2017

First weekend night behind the wheel for Uber in almost a year.  Lots of activity and no drunken idiots.  Even the last ride that was almost at midnight, was a young lady that had been baby setting for someone at the Driskill and was headed home.

Picked up 5 people at the 360 bridge boat dock.  They were all in the lumber business in some form or another.  There was a lot of talk about OSB from Russia and OSB from China.  I had no idea but looked it up when I got home.  Oriented Strand Board, an engineered lumber product.

This same group began talking about a problem with cougars in the north east United States.  I laughed to myself as I thought, we have a cougar problem in Austin but it is the 2 legged kind of cougar problem instead of the 4 legged kind.  I kept that one to myself.

10 rides tonight.  This will probably be it for the week, so that will put me at 20 rides for the first week back with Uber.  So far so good.  Even though it is a hobby, I still need to gather $600 a month for the car payment.  Should be easy enough.

11/01/2017

I have been left to ponder the description that one of the riders used to describe someone that he knows.  "An albino black woman that is a Johovah Witness".  ????

The idea this evening was to just "test the waters" as I started back up driving with Uber.  5 hours later I had completed the most trips ever at 16.  I had never picked up from the hotel Ella and had 2 tonight.  Similarly, I had never dropped off at the South Congress Hotel and had 2 of those as well.  A drop of at AT&T Conference Center and hotel and another at The Element Hotel.  Definitely a hotel kind of night.  Also had a drop off at the Governor's Mansion.  Three smokin' hot ladies and two decent looking guys.  Most of the other guys were dufuses.

I witnessed an employee, possibly the manager, at Caliber Collision walk a female customer about 50 yards to get to my vehicle. Good customer service extra effort kind of thing.

Austin traffic sucks! 

10/29/2017

With the purchase of the new vehicle came the renewed possibility of continuing my hobby of ride share driving.  Need the income to help pay for the thing as well.  We purchased a new GMC Acadia, same model as before, and I should be a popular selection, just as before, with the capacity of 7 in the vehicle.  All of the "paperwork" is turned in and Uber has the app turned back on for me.  Wednesday November 1st is the planned first day back.  Just in time for the holiday season demand.